Rethink Culture

“I always think of culture like a garden... We're always in the middle of the journey. There's no real finish line to culture. It's always like that garden. You're always replanting it. You're always finding new crops. You're finding a new kind of seed to plant. And sometimes it doesn't work out and it's a failure. That's okay, too. There's learning in that as well.”

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Erik Lilla, founder and CEO of Metro Star Gymnastics, a powerhouse program that celebrated its sweet 16 in January 2023 and now teaches over 3,000 students every week...

“I think that when your people really believe that you care for them, they show up every single day, and they give you 110%... Your people are your business. At the end of the day, as a leader or owner you're just one person. Your people are the face of your company. And if you really breathe life into them and you support them and you actually care for them and see them as more than just a worker, I think it can completely change the experience of your customers or clients.”

S03E20 of the Rethink Culture podc...

“Is it companies who put employees first? Do they perform better than companies who put customers first? Or those that put stakeholders first? I thought it was a fundamental question needed to be answered. And the answer [that came through John Kotter’s research] surprised everybody… The companies that outperformed by a factor of 10 were those that treated all 3 equally. That the employees, customers, and shareholders were all like a 3-legged stool.”

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Verne Harnish, founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) with over 18,000 members worldwide. Verne serves as CEO of Scali...

“People are always looking for three things. They look for something to believe in, which is the vision. They look for someone to believe in, which is a leader, and then they're looking for someone to believe in them, which is their self-worth.”

S03E18 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Shivani Gupta, engineer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-educator, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and mentor for female entrepreneurs and leaders.

In this episode, Shivani dives deep into how conscious leadership and self-awareness form the bedrock of a thriving workplace culture. Shivani shares how balancing ego with clear valu...

“I think that culture has always been there… There are two fish swimming in a pond, and a bigger fish swims past them and says, “How's the water?” And when he swims away, the fish look at each other and say, “What's water?” Culture is always there. It's always around you. You can feel it, but you don't even realize you're in it.”

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Miren Oca, the visionary behind the Ocaquatics swim school in Miami, a business whose primary customers are its own employees and for whom culture is the real competiti...

“If you think your team or your organization are not working well, are not doing things, are not to be trusted, are not ready for this, there's something in you here that is all of that. So what in you needs to change, so this space appears for the rest of the team to rise? Be hungry for the collective intelligence to arise. Be happy when you join a meeting and the outcome from it is different from what you envisaged it was going to be. Go with the curiosity of seeing what the solution will be, as opposed to...

“Who you choose as your partner, what you choose as your vacation or your place of work, or the community you choose to live in, I think if these are not aligned to your values, you have a very low chance of success in the long run.”

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Robert Glazer, founder and chairman of Acceleration Partners, a global affiliate marketing agency that’s recognized by the Glassdoor Employee Choice Awards for two years in a row. He's also the author of six books including Elevate and How to Thrive in the Vi...

“What really changed was the experience during the pandemic. The pandemic, in my view, put a very bright spotlight on things that are not working in society as well, put a spotlight on inequalities that exist in society. But it also put a stark spotlight on what is not working in the workplace, why people are actually quitting, why they're frustrated, and why engagement levels are so low.”

S03E14 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Stephan Meier, leading expert at the intersection of behavioural economics, corporate strategy, and the future of work...

“I think my deepest ambition for work is that it's a place where we don't just have well-being, but we have well-being in its true sense, great social connections, great relationships. It's not lonely anymore. It's not miserable. That we support each other and challenge each other, but it's also a place of personal growth and development… And that we go to work to grow and evolve as humans, as well as deliver a great service to other people.”

S03E13 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Helen Sanderson, founder of the UK-based home care o...

"The best organizations will win the battle for talent by creating cultures that allow people to be their best more frequently. And that means one of your practices as a leader needs to be gathering stories that tell you when your people are at their best."

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Spencer Harrison, a professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD Business School and TED speaker. Spencer's expertise and research are widely recognized in the field, and his work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Money, and Inc. magazines. He co-founded...

“At some point in the Industrial Revolution, it made sense that we create humans that conform and just produce. In our day and age we need to go back to what makes us human, especially with AI taking over all those manual processes. We need to relearn to be the children now. To be creative, to be human, to have human connections… Whatever happens, deal with it with love... You can't lead anybody until you love yourself. And you can't lead anybody that you don't love.”

S03E11 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Natach...

“It's not about charity, it's about impact… unlocking the human potential through making people see that enormous power they have in making a difference.”

S03E10 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Masami Sato, founder of B1G1, a global social enterprise dedicated to integrating impactful giving into everyday business operations. Masami is a 2-time TEDx speaker, Amazon bestselling author of four books, and a transformative leader whose B1G1 movement has delivered over 360 million giving impacts worldwide. Her diverse background, from studying architecture to becoming a chef and ultimately leading a social initia...

“We know that our P&Ls have to yield a net positive financial result, but I think also businesses need to yield a net positive people result… Net positive just means giving more than you take… When you use co-creation… people feel ownership and you don’t have to explain or implement it afterwards because when you’ve co-created, everybody is involved, and everybody knows what we’re talking about… In a company where people lead themselves, what do we need leaders for? We need leaders to give us direction and to inspire us, and we need leaders to push us out of o...

“The magic… is what happens between that frontline employee and the customer… the outcome is impact. It’s impact on people’s lives. And ultimately that impact, it drives business success. The framework to get there is to choose your mindset, create your culture, know your customer, define your differentiator, and pursue innovation and iteration. And those are not things we do once, we set them, we’re good and now we’re going to do something else. They’re continual. Culture is living, it’s people. It’s lives. It’s humans. We have to continually keep it alive.”

S03E08 o...

"I can tell you from experience of… 11 years in a healthy, good culture way versus, winning at all costs... It feels a lot easier. And winning comes a lot easier. It’s a lot more fun. I’ve developed a lot more meaningful relationships in the business… people stay longer because they like it here... Don’t underestimate the power of impact that you can have on families outside your four walls because of the values you live and breathe every day inside your four walls… that can be world changing if we do it on a big enough scale…"

"We found that there are some common traits in great managers… The best ones are really good motivators… sometimes they have to make tough decisions, but they're good at influencing people by helping to convince them why they are excellent… The best practice organizations… they have a really good intentional process for developing their… highly effective managers as coaches… I think if we do things right, and we combine autonomy with great managing, great leadership, that we could have the best workplaces ever."

S03E06 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scient...

“You see companies: “I'm going to put a… ping pong table in the break room… and I'm going to have a massage therapist come in and do chair massages…” Those are all nice amenities, but they aren't culture… Culture… is the force that keeps everything together… Some people never get that, they never understand this is necessary… But if… they want to stick around for a while… they need to create a workplace that the people want to come back to every single day… You're going to be alone unless you understand that the only way you create anything is through people… Do you...

"If you're not happy and you're not enjoying your environment, it's going to be hard to feel fulfilled… I tried a few different things, and they didn't work out… I think that really helped build my resilience and helped teach me that maybe the world judges successes and failures based on outcome. But it helped me create a deeper meaning for myself of what, actually, success looks like. And for me, it's really following my beliefs and having that clarity and focus and passion."

S03E04 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Seth Casden, the...

"It feels good to do good with your business. I think we underestimate ourselves as businesspeople and the impact that we can have on people in the world. And we look at politicians and policy, and we look at the slow going, and the barriers to things changing. If we want a more just and equitable future, where all of us can thrive and seek opportunity, business can play an important role in doing that... It starts with caring for your people and giving them good jobs. Not jobs where you're depending on them to have less so you...

"High self-worth leaders want to create environments where everyone can flourish. Low self-worth leaders create environments that control people. So, if they're willing to work on their self-worth… we can build a democratic company in a Democratic Leadership style… seeing how employees feel differently when they work in a WorldBlu certified freedom-centered company, because suddenly they're seen. They're treated with dignity. They're treated with respect. They're treated as a person who has worth."

S03E02 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Traci Fenton, a celebrated keynote speaker, coach, and author of Freedom at Work. Trac...

"I present a vision of the world the way it was meant to be… As we come together in organizations, we need leaders who know how to be good stewards of the people who join this organization, and we send them home fulfilled each night, which will create better families, heal the brokenness we're seeing in our communities… We could heal the brokenness in the world, if we had leaders who had the skills and courage to care."

S03E01 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Bob Chapman, Chairman & CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. Under Bob's lead...

"I learned a very hard lesson in my early twenties when I was running my painting business. I had a lot of my painters quit partway through the summer and I didn't understand why they were quitting on me… I was dictating. I wasn't inspiring them. I wasn't sharing my vision with them or my goals. I wasn't treating them like teammates. I was being a dictator. And my dad said to me, Kristi, people are priority. If you don't have a great team of people, you've got nothing. So make people your priority. And so I would whisper in...

"If leaders are willing to be vulnerable and listen to their employees.. those are cultures which empower everyone to feel safe and to bring their whole selves to work... A lot of leaders are still trying to hide behind stuff.. and they are not sleeping well at night. The most peaceful place for a leader to be is to have stated values and then can stand in the spotlight of those values."

While Rethink Culture is relaxing on summer holidays, we thought we'd bring you one of the podcast classics - How to Craft Company Values...

"We founded the company with a crazy big mission. We wanted to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology, by returning joy to both technology and to the teams that design it and build it… I had this picture in my head of, what do I want my work life to look like? And I thought… a big opening collaborative work environment, a place filled with human energy, a lot of collaboration, doing interesting, new, innovative things together, accomplishing big goals, not as individuals, but as a team."

S02E19 of the Rethink Cult...

"I always hesitate a bit when organizations are like, happiness, happiness, happiness… because our pitfalls will never go away… I will always have those pitfalls. But if I can become conscious and intentional, then I can start to own my pitfalls instead of my pitfalls owning me. And I can start to take responsibility for them… We can talk about it together and no one ever punishes someone for being in their pitfall… We might lovingly make someone aware of it, give them feedback or encourage them… In one of our value statements we say, we see the five-year-old you and we...

"Leaders are usually less perfect than we were taught, or books tell us about them because leading is a very complicated thing… I always like to joke with my clients… when they say, we don't know how we're going to take our culture to the next level. I tell them, give me the ingredients you have, and I'm going to help you out the same way that sometimes I get invited to a friend's house and say, tell me what you have in the kitchen… and I'm going to create some recipe with that… Each company requires its own recipe a...

"You can't be productive unless your team is happy… It's not the foosball tables and the perks. It's that deeper happiness that comes from doing some meaningful work for people that you like and respect, working with people that you like and respect."

S02E16 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Nathan Donaldson from New Zealand. Nathan is the CEO and founder of Boost, a custom software agency for government that runs without managers. He is also the author of the book "Unicorns Over Rainbows," which focuses on making lasting, meaningful changes to...

"As a manager, as a leader… one of your goals is to build the best team that you can afford… So when people say, I can't attract any talent… it's not the talent's fault. Just because you have a job… just because you have a vacancy, there is no God-given right for amazing people to show up at your door and apply for it… Are you a shit place to work or are you an amazing place to work?"

S02E15 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Dominic Monkhouse, Business Coach and CEO Mentor...

"I think business owners have to really rethink who and how they hire, our judgments, our biases, and what as a society we can do, even as a small business like mine, to make it a more vibrant and equitable place... I wanted to make sure that we were treating everybody, no matter what their background was, where they were from, what language they spoke, what addiction they were overcoming, what jail sentence they had served, I wanted all of those people to have a level playing field."

S02E14 of the Rethink Culture podcast...

"If you're not properly leading yourself, it's hard to lead others... How you do one thing is how you do everything. And if… the three areas of your life, if they're in order, if… yourself, mind, body, spirit is good and your family and relationships is good, then it's much easier to be good in the work world."

S02E13 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on David Henzel, a serial entrepreneur who owns several businesses with over 500 employees. Among his recent ventures are TaskDrive, an AI-driven virtual assistance platform, and upcoach, a coac...

"What I would tell a leader is that culture starts with you, but it's made up of the collective. You have to set the tone for it and be that role model. You have to inspire people to be their greatest. Don't be afraid to put your people first… You have to be intentional about it… So don't tolerate people who are taking away from the culture… You are that beacon. You should be the culture evangelist. If you aren't, then I think that you are really missing out on an opportunity to build a lasting, strong company."

"I tell founders this all the time, your goal is to build the company, the environment, to build the place where all the best people in your industry want to work and never want to leave."

S02E11 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Jeff Hoffman, a successful entrepreneur, CEO, motivational speaker, and Hollywood film producer. He has also the producer a Grammy-winning jazz album and served as executive producer of an Emmy-winning television show. Throughout his career, he has also founded multiple startups. Jeff rose to prominence as CEO of priceline...

"If it was easy to become a great leader, we would have totally different politics, totally different companies, totally different burnout rates… "Okay, interesting, why is it so difficult for me?" I think investigating that makes us humans. And that makes you also a better leader if you understand what happens inside yourself. It's also easier to be compassionate with others."

S02E10 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Wendy Van Ierschot, visionary founder and CEO of VIE people, an advisory firm for fast scaling companies in the Netherlands. Beyond that role, Wendy wears mu...

"The best organizations will win the battle for talent by creating cultures that allow people to be their best more frequently. And that means one of your practices as a leader needs to be gathering stories that tell you when your people are at their best."

S02E09 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Spencer Harrison, a professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD Business School and a TED speaker. Spencer's expertise and research are widely recognized in the field, and his work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Money, and...

"No leader should lead alone. … they need a peer group, they need people they can share with, they need to be continually learning and developing, and they need … a support network. It's very easy for a leader to get to a point in their career where they know themselves well, they can be self-aware, they can develop the skills and be a passionate and vital leader inside an organisation. But unless they've got a safe space to unpackage things and grow and develop and learn how to handle tricky situations, they can very easy forget how the world perceives them...

"I always ask people right from the start to talk to me and decide what you want to be famous for… So, what's your intention in terms of that space and getting tasks done? … What's your intention in terms of the relationships that you want to have? What's your intention for the reputation of the team that you will serve?" 

S02E07 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Bruce Sullivan, keynote speaker, author, and business leader, voted Australian Keynote Speaker of the Year. Bruce has entrepreneurial experience leading people, and he teaches culture, teams, and r...

"If you're listening, you're on one or the other side of this quote, and the quote is, none of us will build great companies. We will lead incredible people who will build great companies. You either agree with that or you don't… It's a choice. It's a conscious choice."

S02E06 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Canadian entrepreneur Ron Lovett, CEO and chief community officer of VIDA Living, author of ‘Scaling Culture’ and ‘Outrageous Empowerment’, as well as podcast host of the Scaling Culture podcast.

Ron kickstarted his entrepreneurial journey at...

“You lead human beings and human beings have lives and sometimes those lives are going really well and other times are dealing with challenges. Recognize the humanity in the people that you lead… If we lean in with curiosity and lean in with compassion first and we make people feel like they are genuinely cared about and valued as part of our team, you will see people accomplish things that you just wouldn't imagine. Creating culture starts from genuinely caring about the people that are on your team and that needs to be genuine.”

S02E05 of the Re...

“In the first 100 days in most organizations, employees feel overwhelmed. They feel unconnected. They feel unseen, unheard, unappreciated … I think lots of times leaders will say, well, it will be better if we're all back in the office. Why? What proof do you have? What data do you have? Because as we look anecdotally at anecdata or we look systemically or statistically at research data, it seems to indicate that the great majority of employees are happier working remotely than want to work in the office, and that pretty much cuts across all industries.”

S02E04 of...

"Culture is not about popcorn, peanuts, ping pong. It's about having a heart of gold and a backbone of steel. […] Be a caring organization […] It's a balance between being tough minded and tenderhearted. […] It's simple, it's not easy, and time is not your friend."

Episode S02E03 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on the incredible Garry Ridge. Garry is a “champion-of-hope” leader and has defined culture at the WD-40 Company for an impressive 35 years. He is currently serving as Chairman Emeritus at WD-40.

As the founder of The Learning Moment and an executive...